Some people simply cannot accept that other people are entitled to their own opinion, their own interpretation of things in our modern world, without jumping up and down and trying to belittle them. I had the dubious pleasure, a few days ago, of reading and replying to a few comments here on a post which is just over a year old about terms used to describe people.

Now, I don’t mind being called nice and cute when it is in the right context, but I do draw the line at someone, who does not know the first thing about me, calling me too ignorant to understand. And, as anyone who has a little knowledge of the world will know, calling someone mademoiselle is, certainly as far as the French are concerned, an insult.

But as with all trolls and people who try to act big on the Internet, there is nothing there; no real power, understanding or intelligence. Take a step back and reply in a similar – but not insulting – fashion, and they are completely lost. It is as if their limited level of understanding has suffered a whoosh!, and the content of the reply goes over their head. Lost for words, they might try a smart comeback but, in all likelihood, they will just withdraw defeated, especially if you turn their own argument back against them.

Sometimes, when the insults are left out, such a battle of wits can be fun, it can be a challenge. The two – or more – people involved need, however, to be on much the same level for it to work. That clearly isn’t the case here, the strain of finding a smart, relevant reply was clearly too much and, licking his wounds, the attacker withdrew.

The balloon of arrogance burst, or just an example of how a misogynist can be beaten at his own game? Who can tell. Still, if it is the same person, perhaps he can go back to Vimeo and ponder the realities of life with one of his favorite short films (NSFW).

In French, it is not a diminutive of “madame” as Fraulein is to Frau, the only thing the two words have in common is the possessive prefix “ma”.

The words first expressed class distinctions, dame being reserved for the nobility short of royalty, demoiselle for what we would call today the upper middle class, and “fille” for everyone else.

My guess, and that is all it is, is that the word evolved to designate an unmarried woman within the bourgeois world of the third Republic and beyond, always indicating some sort of superiority. No demoiselle ever worked as a housemaid, that was a job for a fille.

You still can sense those class distinctions in France if you pay attention.